A sleeping crisis?
Fleets use technology, risk management to monitor, treat a growing pandemic of fatigue and sleep disorders.
Driver fatigue is the primary cause of only about 1.6 percent of truck fatalities, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. However, fatigue is often the root cause for serious bad driving habits – such as speeding and distracted driving – that are major causes of crashes. In the first of a three-part series on driver fatigue management, CCJ spotlights some advanced technologies and programs used to detect, monitor and control this complex problem. Subsequent stories will address electronic driver logging and driver-load scheduling.
Someday, commercial drivers may wear devices on their wrists that monitor their sleep patterns and interface with fleet dispatch systems to provide rest-related information for a dispatcher. Such information might even integrate with automated load planning systems to match drivers with loads based on the amount and quality of rest rather than on a regulatory limit.
This scenario might sound futuristic and implausible, but it is precisely the type of real-time fatigue management system that Don Osterberg currently is pursuing with NASA safety engineers.
“We are working to that end, but nothing is on the near-term horizon,” says Osterberg, senior vice president of safety and driver training for Schneider National. In the meantime, the Green Bay, Wis.-based company is using a variety of technology, training and driver wellness programs to lower the risk of fatigue. “The bottom line is that fatigue is a serious issue. When you recognize the impact of fatigue, it really obligates carriers to focus on developing a comprehensive management strategy.”
Targeting sleep disorders
Any fatigue management program starts by going after the low-hanging fruit – drivers with sleeping disorders.
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), one of the most severe types of sleep disorders, blocks the airway during sleep, causing the body to wake up a minimum of 15 to 20 times an hour to restore breathing. Besides causing daytime drowsiness, OSA can lead to serious health issues such as hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Up to 28 percent of commercial drivers have severe sleep apnea, according to an oft-cited research project from Dr. Allan Pack at the University of Pennsylvania. OSA commonly is treated using continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) or auto-titrating positive air pressure (APAP) devices. A CPAP device supplies a constant amount of air pressure to the patient, whereas an APAP device automatically titrates, or tunes, the amount of pressure at each breath to the minimum required to maintain an unobstructed airway.
“When you look at the whole of commercial drivers, there are a significant number who today are undiagnosed and untreated,” Osterberg says.
